A cargo of 16 containers carrying snacks and other food items manufactured by Pepsi is on its way to Varanasi. What makes this nine-day journey special is that instead of roads or railways, this cargo has taken the waterway — part of an effort by the government to resurrect the Ganga as a significant transportation … Continued

OVER THE years, various citizens and political leaders have debated whether India should have two separate time zones. The demand is based on the huge difference in daylight times between the country’s longitudinal extremes, and the costs associated with following the same time zone. Those arguing against the idea, on the other hand, cite impracticability … Continued

Cyclone Titli became the third major cyclone to hit the Odisha-Andhra coastal zone in the last five years, all in October. What explains the similar timing, and how effective are the mechanisms for prediction and disaster mitigation? Season & frequency Cyclones have always been frequent in the region. What has risen is is the “frequency … Continued

Yesterday’s cyclonic storm over west central Bay of Bengal (BoB) moved west- north westawrds, intensified into a severe cyclonic storm in the early morning and into a very severe cyclonic storm around noon of today, the 10th October, 2018. Tropical Cyclones A tropical cyclone is an intense low pressure area or a whirl in the … Continued

The confirmed death toll from the earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the Indonesian city of Palu reached 844 Monday evening. Waves rose 20 feet, which has surprised some scientists who said they wouldn’t normally associate such high levels of destruction with the kind of earthquake that preceded the tsunami. ‘Vertical’ earthquakes Catastrophic tsunamis are often … Continued

How has the monsoon fared this year? Even though the monsoon is fairly consistent in the amount of rainfall that India receives between June and September, there is a sharp variation every year that makes it unique. This year, the floods in Kerala and the torrential rains in Himachal Pradesh may have given the impression … Continued

After years of arguing over whether Pluto is a planet, in 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voted to remove Pluto’s planetary status. Now some researchers are challenging this decision, citing the manner in which scientific tradition has dealt with the taxonomy of planets. What was the decision of IAU? The IAU, in 2006, designated … Continued

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh tweeted over the weekend that Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir had signed a “historic” agreement on the Shahpur Kandi project, which would be completed in three years and would generate 207 MW power and irrigate 95,000 acres of land “for our farmers”. Power Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar subsequently said … Continued

Every year, the Brahmaputra takes away chunks of land from Kaziranga National Park that on paper is 1,030 sq km in area. The park now measures 884 sq km and is shrinking. But the river gives more to the address of the world’s largest population of one-horned rhinos than it snatches from — mostly hog … Continued

What is it? For 2018, the monsoon is past the crucial half-way mark. As of August 9, the seasonal rain, which decides the fate/extent of the kharif crop acreage, has run up a deficit of 10%. But it is not so much the deficit figure as the spatial and temporal spread (across space and time) … Continued